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Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel

On Saturday night, Johnny Football may become Johnny Heisman.

Over his next 2 seasons of college eligibility, however, his inability to financially benefit from his rising star could be a highly visible straw that breaks the NCAA's back (and bank) in court on the issue of image and identity rights for student-athletes.

Because Johnny Manziel has the potential to be Ed O'Bannon's white knight, you could say that Mr. O'Bannon might have a bit of a Man-ziel Crush on the young gunslinger these days.

For those of you that follow my articles regularly, you know that I'm not in favor of paying athletes while they are in school. The value of the education, marketing, and training received through athletic scholarships exceeds the individual marginal revenue product for at least 90% of all student-athletes in Division I sports.

However, in that same article I state the following:

"...set up a system that gives the marquee players a chance to cash in on a certain percentage of the merchandising and licensing royalties they earn for their schools, and put those monies aside for such players so they can access in full either upon graduation or until they have used up their eligibility."

Johnny Football has the potential to become one of the biggest phenomenons to ever hit college sports. He set an all-purpose yardage record as a redshirt freshman in America's toughest conference, he's got at least 2 more years to strut his stuff in College Station, and the visibility/hype will be extraordinarily high playing in the SEC.

Yet, as Darren Rovell insightfully noted this week, Mr. Manziel cannot cash in on that brand until he turns pro. Meanwhile, Texas A&M can by selling jerseys, T-shirts and hats with No. 2 on them. (Though they can't use Manziel's name, likeness or Johnny Football nickname).

The lawsuit, which has since been joined by NBA legends Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson as plaintiffs, addresses the NCAA's policy of licensing the names, images and likenesses of former D-I football and men's basketball players in various commercial ventures without the players' permission and without providing them compensation.

(For more background information on the case including economic assessments by Stanford economist Roger Noll, view these links...A and B).

Johnny Manziel proved to be a dangerous weapon for SEC defenses in 2012.

In 2013 and 2014, Johnny Manziel may prove to be a dangerous threat to the NCAA's continued ability to restrict student-athletes to profit from the use of their likeness, name, or brand.

Mr. O'Bannon has no doubt become a huge Manziel fan, because the expansion of the Johnny Football persona may become O'Bannon's secret weapon in his pending litigation against the NCAA.

IF Manziel continues to see his marquee value grow over the next 2 years (i.e. play great, avoid injury), IF there is continued groundswell and outcry over his inability to cash in on his star power while in College Station (e.g. tangible financial data on how much A&M profits from the sale of Manziel-related products), and IF O'Bannon's lawsuit is not dismissed in the interim, then the courts may be more likely to side with former and current student-athletes regarding how revenues generated from their names and brands are allocated between athlete and school.

Safe to say, all parties siding with O'Bannon's case against the NCAA have developed a Man-ziel crush on Johnny Football.

Because the more this kid from Texas wins, the odds of O'Bannon winning increase as well.